How we do summer horse trials in Texas

Published on by Amanda C

The end of August in Texas is still basically mid-summer for us, so it’s still hot as hell here. There are very few recognized horse trials in the summer because of that, but the one we’re going to this weekend has a pretty good way to work around it:

coronatimes

Basically everything happens either before noon or after 6pm. Because no one wants to ride in 100 degree heat with 50% humidity. No one. But at 10am it should only be about 80 (granted, with around 70% humidity) and at 6pm is should be about 90 (with more like 35% humidity), both of which are better than 100 degrees in the mid-afternoon sun in West Texas where there’s not much shade.

I’ll be bringing a lot of ice, ice packs, and fans.

ghetto-rigged ice packs

I will also try to keep our warm-ups under 15 minutes. Mostly walking before dressage, and just a quick canter and a couple jumps before Stadium and XC. This will be Henry’s second Novice and the rumor is that the courses will be set soft (and the XC speed is only 350mpm) so I just want him to hop around and get more confident at the level. We only need 3 more completions to qualify for the N3DE next year, so that takes a lot of pressure off. I’ll go with the same plan I had at Greenwood and Texas Rose with the dressage: calm and quiet, even if it means leaving points on the table. He’s still easily frazzled by dressage and Novice Test B doesn’t flow so well for us, so this will be our standard tactic for a while to come. I would not mind getting back another dressage test with comments like “lazy” and “needs more forward”. For this horse that’s a win.

Coats are waived so I’m gonna go pick up a purple sunshirt to wear in honor of my mom. It’ll match Henry’s purple braids.

because I bought these, and pulled out the purple ones

It’s been a long 12 weeks since Texas Rose, I’m beyond ready to get this fall season on the road! Corona this weekend, AEC in 4 weeks, Greenwood 2 weeks after that, and then wrapping up 3 weeks later on Halloween at Pine Hill. Let’s do this. Also, Bobby is moving up to Novice this weekend because peer pressure totally works. And he’s going to kick everyone’s ass, as usual, including mine.

21 thoughts on “How we do summer horse trials in Texas”

  1. Love that you found purple rubber bands and how awesomethat you’re going to wear a purple sunshirt. 🙂

    Did Bobby talk you into doing Halo’s tail for the weekend?

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    1. She actually said if I buy the dye, she’d do it! I am sure this is a veiled attempt to but brown hair dye on me but if Halo’s tail gets done in the process, I can deal.

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  3. I kinda thought Bobby’s unicorn horn was a wand. Now I want Bobby to ride around with one of those sparkly princess wand crops. Make this happen. I’m depending on you.

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    1. It’s part unicorn horn, part wand. And all of our team has one of those sparkly wand crops for AEC, so your dreams are about to come true. In fact, the one Bobby uses at AEC will be autographed by him and given away through here as part of the huge prize pack in our Unicorn contest.

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  6. that’s genius about the ride times – hopefully the weather cooperates! congrats to bobby for moving up too – very exciting for both of you!

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